Author: stacybuckeye

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

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French MilkFrench Milk. Finished 7-17-13, rating 3.25, graphic memoir, 193 pages, pub. 2007

Celebrating her mom’s 50th birthday and her own 22nd, Lucy and her mom decided to visit Paris together for a month.  They rented an apartment in the fifth arrondissement and started touring the city in January of 2007 and this book is her travel journal.  Lucy, attending the Center for Cartoon Studies, showed her skills in this graphic novel.

I was drawn in right away by her humor and the way she told her story.  The photographs that were interspersed with the drawings made it feel more personal.  I felt like I was on the streets of Paris stopping in cafes and drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cheese and bread.  Her quirkiness was refreshing and I love the idea of doing something so fantastic with your mother.

She lost me a little bit about halfway through.  She became whiny and it was hard t o feel sympathy for her when she complained of missing home.  One month in Paris is such a wonderful gift!  I know I am saying that as a 40 something and Lucy had not yet turned 22, so maybe that was the problem.  I probably wouldn’t have appreciated it as much at 22 as I would now.  After she recovered from that mood the book became more about what they ate and where when I wanted more story.

Overall, this is a short, easy to read travel journal.  I think it would be a perfect read for anyone planning to travel there.  It’s perfect to get restaurant and shopping ideas., but for me it didn’t deliver enough about her relationship with her mother, and that’s what I was expecting.

This was from my personal library.

Traveling down the SeineFrance 154. (courtesy of Bookbath)

Scrambled France Quiz – guessing closed

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The last few Paris quizzes have been challenging, so I thought I’d make things a little easier this week.  Just unscramble the titles of these classic novels set in France. I chose them because I think you’ll recognize them all!

Just for some extra help here are the authors who wrote them-Camus, Hemingway, Dickens, Hugo, Collette, Dumas, Leroux

I hope that you’ll try your hand at my (mostly) bookish quizzes every week, but it’s okay if you just want to play when the quiz interests you.  If you play you are eligible for a prize at the end of the round.  For all of the details, click here.  Submit your answers in the comment section – I will stop by and hide them throughout the week but try not to copy off anyone else :)   You have til Sunday to guess.

No need to know all the answers, one guess and you’ll be eligible for a prize.  No Googling 🙂

1. IIGG – Gigi by Colette

2. A EALT FO OWT TIIECS – A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens

3. HET HETER EEESTRSKUM – The Three Musketeers by Dmas

4. EEAMMD VRYBOA – Madame Bovary by Flaubert

5. ELS SABLEMISER – Les Miserables by Hugo

6. TEH COTNU FO ONETM SITCRO – The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas

7. HET BACKHHUNC FO NOTER DEAM – The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Hugo

8. ETH TOMANPH FO HET PRAOE – The Phantom of the Opera by Leroux

9. HET UNS SLOA ISERS – The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway

10. EHT RTSANGRE – The Stranger by Camus

Answers to the last two quizzes (French Actors) (Eiffel Tower)

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of The Doll by Taylor Stevens here.

France 266For some reason I loved this image.  This was one of our hotels in Paris, the rooms were beautiful. (courtesy of Bookbath)

The Doll Giveaway!

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So, I was able to spend some time with Taylor Stevens, the author of the Vanessa Michael Monroe series, last month and brought home a new, signed hardcover copy of the latest in the series, #3.  I decided to give it away this month since Taylor assured me that France is in the book 🙂  Although I haven’t read this one yet I can recommend this series for thriller lovers and those who love kick ass women.

The Doll (Vanessa Michael Munroe Series #3)The Doll, 2013

Haunted by a life of violence and as proficient with languages as she is with knives, Vanessa Michael Munroe, chameleon and hunter, has built her life on a reputation for getting things done—dangerous and often not-quite-legal things. Born to missionary parents in lawless Africa, taken under the tutelage of gunrunners, and tortured by one of the jungle’s most brutal men, Munroe was forced to do whatever it took to stay alive.
   The ability to survive, fight, adapt, and blend has since taken her across the globe on behalf of corporations, heads of state, and the few private clients who can afford her unique brand of expertise, and these abilities have made her enemies. 
   On a busy Dallas street, Munroe is kidnapped by an unseen opponent and thrust into an underground world where women and girls are merchandise and a shadowy figure known as The Doll Maker controls her every move. While trusted friends race to unravel where she is and why she was taken, everything pivots on one simple choice: Munroe must use her unique set of skills to deliver a high-profile young woman into the same nightmare that she once endured, or condemn to torture and certain death the one person she loves above all else.
   Driven by the violence that has made her what she is, cut off from help, and with attempts to escape predicted and prevented, Munroe will hunt for openings, for solutions, and a way to strike back at a man who holds all the cards. Because only one thing is certain: she cannot save everyone. 
   In this high-octane thriller for fans of Lee Child, Stieg Larsson, and Robert Ludlum’s Bourne trilogy, Vanessa Michael Munroe will have to fight fast, smart and furiously to overcome a dangerous nemesis and deliver her trademark brand of justice.

from Goodreads

Want to win a signed copy?  All you need to do is leave a comment with your email address.  I will count EVERY comment you leave on any of my posts this month as an entry.  Just make sure you leave your email on this post so I know you want it. I’ll tally previous and future July post comments for the drawing.  Open worldwide 🙂

Gage will draw a winner on July 31, so get to commenting 🙂

France 127I bet the super heroine, Vanessa Michael Monroe, uses these sidewalk gas pumps!  (courtesy of Bookbath)

Weekends with Gage – Gage and the Purple Crayon

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Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson is a book that I have loved sharing with Gage.  It is all about imagination and that’s something I want to encourage in Gage.  The fact that purple is his favorite crayon color  and that there was a scary dragon in it made this an easy sell.  It is a little long, but Gage makes it all the way through.  I’d say It’s perfect for kids 2 1/2-5 and there are just so many activities to try with this one.  I decided to let Gage make his own. book.  Harold was armed only with a crayon, but Gage got stickers and a little help from mom.

For prep I folded 4 sheets of paper in half and then a sheet of white cardstock for the cover, collected purple crayons and stickers that could help with storytelling.  We very loosely used some of the scenes from the book.  Gage had fun even if I had to prod with the storytelling.  I will do this activity again and each time prompt more from Gage so I have to provide less.  I made the cover myself after he was done 🙂

purplethe set up

purple 1what should I put on the road?

purple 2sometimes one crayon is not enough

purple 3and sometimes I needed help.

purple 4I’m feeling proud.

purple 5the final productpurple 6purple 7I had so much fun with Gage I’m thinking of making one myself. I think this book is a must have for any kid.  Harold’s that is, Gage’s isn’t for sale!

France 041There’s a little bit of purple in here :(courtesy of Bookbath))

Saturday Snapshot – Lyon

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France 018Lyon is the second largest city in France and its beautiful.  These were all from our 2010 trip. Ever been?

France 022France 028France 019France 032France 034

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy.  It’s easy to participate – just post a picture that was taken by you, a friend, or a family member and add your link on Melinda’s site.

(courtesy of Bookbath)

Fave Film #46- Chocolat

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Chocolat sheet.jpg(2000)

Cast-Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, Johnny Depp

Vianne and her daughter, Anouk, are travelers.  In 1959 they blow into a small, devout village in France and open up a chocolate shop at the beginning of Lent.  This angers the mayor and moral leader of the village and the two struggle against each other for their place in the community.

Why I Love It– There are so many things I love about this movie, but the thing that stands out the most is the mysterious and mystical storytelling.  It is magical realism with a message.  A story of the good (the godly followers) and the bad (everyone else) it was told in such a lavish way that it wasn’t the same, stale story we’ve seen before. There is whimsy but it also gives you something to think about.

I thought the casting was perfect.  Juliette Binoche was perfect as Vianne.  She was kind but almost eager to stir the pot.  The glint in her eye let you know that things were not as calm as they seemed.  And Judi Dench was flawless as usual.  I’ve seen Alfred Molina in many movies, but this is the role I usually associate him with in my mind.  And, Johnny, oh sweet, sweet Johnny.  He is a sexy man ‘cleaned up’ as a river rat.  His subdued performance was a change from some of his more flamboyant roles and he worked well with Juliette.

And the chocolate…oh the beautiful chocolate!  It made me want to go out and buy some handmade works of art.  Vianne liked to guess people’s favorite chocolate and I like to think that she would have chosen her hot chocolate for me.

There is  beauty on the screen and in the movie’s message.  I can’t say that the message of tolerance didn’t have its problems but I found them easy to overlook. I was too busy looking at Johnny and the chocolate to care 😉

 

 

France 287France 288Even though the movie was set in a fictional French town I can see Vianne setting up shop here, in the Montmartre area of Paris.

(courtesy of Bookbath)

Rainy Paris in July

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It’s rained here every day for the last 16 days and yesterday I even had to wake up Gage from his nap to take him to the basement when a tornado warning rolled through town.  When we visited France in 2010 our time in Lyon was perfect but Paris gave us more than one day of rain.  Enjoy some gloomy pictures from around Paris and Versailles.  Paris, even is the rain, was still beautiful.

France 076France 165France 169 France 170 France 276France 225France 223 France 252

(courtesy of Bookbath)

Paris in Love

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France 280“…I was walking with them all the way up to Montmartre, the highest point in the city.  I staggered up the last steps to find the Sacre-Coeur basilica’s dome gleaming in the sunlight, covered by rows of creamy scallops that reminded me of children’s drawings of ocean waves: very regular, quite fantastic.”  from A Parisian Spring chapter

Paris in LoveParis in Love by Eloisa James. Finished 7-5-13, rating 3.5/5, travel memoir, 258 pages, pub. 2012

Eloisa James is a professor of Shakespeare, a romance author, a wife, a mother, and a cancer survivor.  Weeks after her mother died of cancer, James found out that she too had breast cancer.  Calling it the ‘good kind’ her prognosis was always good and she never had that profound moment of divine clarity on life’s meaning, but she did feel the need for a change, a new experience.  She convinced her husband, also a professor, to take a year sabbatical so they could move to Paris for a year.  So, with kids in tow, off they went with varying degrees of excitement.

Let me say from the start that the idea of this sounds so incredibly tempting.  I’m not sure how I feel about uprooting the kids for a year, but I applaud her bravery in giving them a year they won’t forget.

This book started as her Facebook posts.  She organized and revised and put them into a lovely travel journal.  I most appreciated the longer essays as I thought they were more thoughtful and thought provoking than just the quick take posts.  I wish the book had been mainly essays with the short posts sprinkled throughout.

She touches on everything – the food, the clothes, the diet, the idea that French women don’t get fat, the schools, the housing, being an English speaking American in France.  I especially enjoyed her stories about her daughter’s school ordeals.  Being a pre-teen girl is no easy thing and doing it in a new country only adds to the hilarity (funny only at a distance. I’m sure).

I liked it.  I won this over at Amused by Books and I want to thank Leah for sending it my way.  Perfect for July in Paris 🙂

French Actors Quiz – guessing closed

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I’m going to leave up last week’s quiz for another week if you’d like to try your hand at Eiffel Tower book covers.  Eiffel Tower Quiz

I’m no expert on French actors and actresses, but when I started looking I was surprised at how many I knew.  Can you tell me the names of these talented thespians?  And you’ll get extra points if you name one movie they were in.

PLEASE join in the fun.  You can guess as few or as many as you want and you entered to win a prize at the end of the month.  No Googling please 🙂

1.   2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.   9.  10.

1.Brigitte Bardot  2.Gerard Depardieu  3.Juliette Binoche  4.Olivier Martinez  5.Marion Cotillard  6.Jean Reno  7.Catherine Deneave  8.Vincent Cassel  9.Leslie Caron  10.Marcel Marceau

(courtesy of Bookbath)

Pere Lachaise from above. In 2007 #10 was buried in this cemetery.

France 137

Paris in July – Tennis anyone?

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France 261Here we are at the French Open in 2010, the clay courts are cool, right?  The line was long to get in and then I didn’t have proper ID so we had to wait some more, but we had a great day, even if we spent too much time baking in the sun.  It was fun to get up close and personal at the smaller courts and in the earlier rounds that meant we saw some great matches. Another great day in Paris with friends.  (I look like I have an elf ear, right?)

I post this today in honor of Andy Murray’s Wimbledon win yesterday!  The first British man to win since 1936.  I was so happy for him and loved his emotion after winning the title.  We’re tennis fans here (Jason more than me since he’s actually a good player) and we’ve been to two of the four big tournaments, next up, Wimbledon!

(courtesy of Birdbath)